# The Microbiologist: The Science That Could End Disease (And Create Life) | Andrew Hessel

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/i-ve-got-questions-with-sinead-bovell-7500610/the-microbiologist-the-science-that-could-end-disease-and-create-life-andrew-hessel
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/i-ve-got-questions-with-sinead-bovell-7500610/the-microbiologist-the-science-that-could-end-disease-and-create-life-andrew-hessel.md
Podcast: [I've Got Questions with Sinead Bovell](https://stenobird.com/podcast/i-ve-got-questions-with-sinead-bovell-7500610)
Published: 2025-10-09T06:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/LLAAY1530017529.mp3?updated=1760034537
Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/LLAAY1530017529.mp3?updated=1760034537
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/i-ve-got-questions-with-sinead-bovell-7500610/episodes/the-microbiologist-the-science-that-could-end-disease-and-create-life-andrew-hessel
Duration seconds: 4932

## Resource

In this episode of I’ve Got Questions, I sit down with Andrew Hessel, microbiologist, geneticist, author and pioneering voice in synthetic biology, a field that is redefining how we understand and engineer life itself. We explore what happens when biology becomes programmable and every cell, virus, and even our own DNA can be edited, rewritten, and redesigned. Andrew explains how breakthroughs in digital biology could make infertility a thing of the past, why diseases like cancer and diabetes could soon be treated at the cellular level, and how a new era of genetic surgery could let us reprogram our bodies before illness ever begins. We also unpack the ethical, emotional, and philosophical questions of what it means to live in a world where we can literally reprogram life. Follow my work here: Website: https://www.sineadbovell.com Substack: https://sineadbovell.substack.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sineadbovell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sineadbovell Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/SineadBovell YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/Sineadbovell TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/sineadbovell

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/i-ve-got-questions-with-sinead-bovell-7500610/episodes/the-microbiologist-the-science-that-could-end-disease-and-create-life-andrew-hessel/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/i-ve-got-questions-with-sinead-bovell-7500610/the-microbiologist-the-science-that-could-end-disease-and-create-life-andrew-hessel.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.